Gift Helps Keep Campus Food Pantry Stocked With Food, Basic Necessities

Alfred Street Baptist Church of Alexandria, Virginia, recently invested in Alabama A&M University students with a $25,000 donation to the Bulldog Market, the University’s food pantry serving students experiencing food insecurity. The gift is part of Alfred Street Baptist Church’s Tithe-the-Tithe Initiative, an outreach effort through which the historic congregation directs a portion of its giving to organizations serving communities across the country.

The Bulldog Market provides AAMU students with food, beverages, hygiene products and other basic necessities. Established to address both ongoing and temporary food insecurity, the market helps ensure that a lack of basic necessities does not become a barrier to students’ academic and personal success.

The $25,000 donation will help keep the Bulldog Market stocked and accessible to students. The gift marks the first donation of its kind to the Bulldog Market from a church outside Alabama.

Alfred Street Baptist Church launched its Tithe-the-Tithe Initiative in 2020. On Easter Sunday that year, the Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley, the church’s pastor, announced that 10% of tithes raised would be directed back into communities. Since then, the giving program has contributed more than $2.3 million to organizations addressing needs ranging from food and housing insecurity to education and community services.

During an interview with Erica Washington on Alabama A&M’s WJAB 90.9 FM, Wesley discussed the church’s commitment to combining worship with service.

“The church has to be more concerned about what’s outside its doors than inside,” Wesley said.

That philosophy guides the church’s outreach as it takes the Alfred Street Experience to communities around the country. Wesley said the congregation does not want to enter a city simply to hold a worship service and leave without making a meaningful contribution.

“That’s why it’s important for us in every city to partner with like-minded organizations that are actually doing the work on the ground,” Wesley told Washington.

For its Huntsville visit, that commitment included a donation to Alabama A&M and its students. The church learned about the Bulldog Market through longtime Alfred Street member Roosevelt Conley, father of AAMU General Counsel Rochelle A. Conley. A member of the congregation for about 45 years, Conley brought the campus food pantry to the church’s attention as leaders considered opportunities to support AAMU students.

Wesley said the church has a particular commitment to Historically Black Colleges and Universities and researched opportunities to support AAMU before selecting the Bulldog Market.

“We know Alabama A&M has a humongous history of educating and producing Black excellence, and we wanted to invest in that,” Wesley said. “After doing our research, we thought the Bulldog Market was one of the best places to give and to help support the work of A&M.”

For Deacon Alma Haygood, a 1978 Alabama A&M graduate and Alfred Street Baptist Church member, returning to The Hill made the visit particularly meaningful.

“It feels marvelous to be back,” Haygood said. “The campus has changed so much since I graduated from Alabama A&M in 1978. It’s been a long journey, but whenever I come back, I feel like I’m home. I love coming back to The Hill.”

After presenting the gift, members of Alfred Street Baptist Church toured the Alabama A&M campus, giving the visiting delegation an opportunity to experience The Hill and learn more about the University and the students their contribution will support. The campus visit was part of the church’s trip to Huntsville for the Alfred Street Experience, a live worship service held Oct. 1 at the Von Braun Center’s Mark C. Smith Concert Hall.

The Huntsville gathering was part of an outreach effort that grew from Alfred Street’s expanded virtual congregation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Wesley told WJAB that nearly 30% of the church’s membership now lives outside its immediate area, prompting church leaders to find ways to connect with those members and supporters in person. Previous Alfred Street Experience events have been held in Philadelphia, Charlotte and Orlando.

For Monica Clarke, director of the Bulldog Market, the $25,000 gift will help ensure the market can continue meeting students’ basic needs.

“This donation is important to our students because it helps us keep food on the shelves,” Clarke said. “When donations are not enough to meet the need, we use the funds we receive to supplement them and make sure we can continue providing food for our students.”